I can remember my dad doing the taxes.
Now, Dad was a banker. He knew what was what when it came to finances, and money, and accounting, and tabulation, and record-keeping. And I can remember long weekends (and more), the dining room table covered with neat stacks of paper, colorful tax forms, and endless grumbling.
And when I first started doing taxes, even just starting out, I can remember doing much the same. Stacks of paper (not nearly so neat). Various forms (well, the 1040EZ for starters, but a couple of copies so I could do a draft in pencil, and a final in ink), and stacks of instructions and reference guides. Oh, and a calculator.
Tax time today is, honestly, a zillion times easier.
First off, there’s tax software. Despite its frequent attempts to get you to buy into various options, TurboTax (as a prominent example) is a huge time-saver — just printing out the forms, let alone the sucking in of W2 data and other info like that. And explaining the vagaries of tax law far more clearly than those IRS booklets did.
And then there’s stuff like Gmail. Receipts from online donations, all that sort of thing, are just a search away. Plus confirmation whether that donation you made was actually last year, but the year before, or the year before that.
Online banking and bill-paying make life so much easier, too, for tracking down other expenditures that might apply. And online payroll services make it trivial to grab a misplaced W2 or pay stub.
Now, my taxes aren’t wildly complicated. But, taxes only took me about four hours today — and the biggest chunk of that was sorting paper records. Into nice, neat stacks, of course.
Nobody likes paying taxes (whether one agrees they are necessary or not). But it’s sure a lot easier to do than when I watched my dad doing it.
I mostly agree. Tax software takes much less time, and the guidance it gives and the interview process it uses to fill out some forms is very nice. On the other hand, I use H&R Block’s tax software, and it let me declare the same income twice last year because it seemed to ask the same question twice without explaining the difference clearly enough that I could tell them apart. Admittedly, I should have caught it when I reviewed the forms before mailing them, but I didn’t since I was in a hurry. So now I need to amend last year’s tax return. Last year was the first time I ever used software, and in all the years before that, I never needed to amend a return. As a result, I’m not as sanguine about tax software as I was last year when I thought everything had gone without a hitch.
Interesting. I can imagine there would be a risk of that sort of mistake with any tax software — which is why reviewing makes so much sense. (I almost double-applied an arcane Colorado tax credit in the same fashion.)
I forgot one more advantage to the modern tax era: online filing, with direct deposit of returns.
I got mine filed long anough ago that tax day snuck up on me, so it’s an unexpected chance to feel smug. *grin*
Our taxes are complicated, mostly due to my wife’s small business (last year for that lovely tax deduction, now replaced with her education expenses! Yeah? Woo?). Turbo Tax (the free online version) has been a tremendous help, but I’ve always had to watch the input very carefully because it is obtuse and doesn’t self check nearly enough. Still, having filed my taxes in about 4 hours and gotten both my Federal and Wisconsin return back by direct deposit in two weeks . . .awesome!
As someone who has never prepared my own taxes (family LLC and crazy inheritance makes it a bad idea), taxes for me is always gathering the paperwork and getting it to my preparer. But that isn’t without issues, since I have to wait of the paperwork for the family LLC, usually to the last minute. But signed the papers in SD on Saturday, so they’re filed.
Bonus for Stan: this is the last year he’ll have to do his taxes, if we joint file.
Clever man, that Stan. 🙂
We did use a tax accountant for four years or so after we married and moved out here, to address separate finance and alimony issues. I actually prefer doing it all myself (at least so long as my current tax situation doesn’t become more complex).